6.  The first applicant is the mother and the remaining six applicants are the siblings of Mustafa Döleksoy who was born in 1952 and died in 2007.
7.  The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties and as they appear from the documents submitted by them, may be summarised as follows.
8.  At around 10 a.m. on 25 August 2007 Mustafa Döleksoy’s neighbours noticed a strong smell coming from his summer house near the town of Erdemli in southern Turkey. They informed the caretaker and the security guard of the summer house complex, who immediately went to Mustafa Döleksoy’s house. The door to the house was closed but the two men were able to see, by looking under the door, that Mustafa Döleksoy was lying on his back on the floor. They then called the gendarmerie.
9.  A number of gendarmes, accompanied by a doctor from the local health clinic, arrived at the scene at around 10.30 a.m. As the door to the house was locked, a locksmith had to be found to open the door.
10.  The doctor who accompanied the gendarmes prepared a report at 10.30 a.m. in which he concluded that Mustafa Döleksoy had died of a cerebral haemorrhage and circulatory failure which had been caused by head trauma as a result of falling from the worktop in the kitchen. The doctor estimated that the death had occurred four to five days previously.
11.  In their statements to the gendarmerie, the applicants Mahmut and Ahmet Cengiz Dölek said that they did not know who might have been responsible for the death of their brother and that they did not suspect anyone in particular. The caretaker and the security guard of the summer house complex were also questioned by the gendarmes and they were reported as having stated that they had no idea how Mustafa Döleksoy might have met his death.
12.  The Erdemli prosecutor went to the house at around 11.40 a.m. and drew up an examination report with the assistance of the same doctor. Mustafa Döleksoy’s body was formally identified by a colleague from the law firm where Mustafa Döleksoy had been working as a lawyer. The colleague also told the prosecutor that Mustafa Döleksoy had recently purchased the summer house and had been making preparations to move in.
13.  In his report the prosecutor noted the presence of a large amount of dried blood on the floor which had come from Mustafa Döleksoy’s head. He observed that the corpse had swollen and the face had completely blackened. The doctor reported two fractures on both the left and right of the occipital region of the head and two cuts above the fractures. No indications of firearm injuries or stab wounds were noted on the body. A handful of hair found in the left hand of Mustafa Döleksoy and the samples taken from Mustafa Döleksoy’s own hair were placed in two separate envelopes and sealed. A decision was made to hand over to the family the clothes taken off the body, because the prosecutor considered that they had no evidential value as there were no holes in them caused by a firearm or a knife. The personal belongings, such as a wallet with money and credit cards in it and a mobile phone found in the trouser pockets, were taken away as evidence.
14.  The doctor did not find it necessary to conduct a full post mortem examination because, in his opinion, the cause of death had already been established as cerebral haemorrhage and circulatory failure caused by head trauma. Nevertheless, having regard to the fact that “the death had occurred in an empty house and the deceased had a clump of hair in his hand”, the prosecutor decided to send the body to the Adana Branch of the Forensic Medicine Institute for a full post-mortem examination to be carried out so that any suspicions could be eliminated by determining the exact cause of death and the cause of the injuries observed on the head.
15.  Crime scene officers from the gendarmerie who moved the body at 12.30 p.m. the same day after the prosecutor’s examination also noted the two cuts on the back of the head and recorded their finding in a report. According to the report, there were no signs of a struggle in the house which, in any event, had been unfurnished. The crime scene officers also drew up a sketch of the house which also indicated the position of the body.
16.  The same day a post mortem examination was carried out at the Adana Branch of the Forensic Medicine Institute. The report pertaining to that examination was prepared on 12 November 2007. It was noted in the report that, contrary to what had been stated in the prosecutor’s report (see paragraph 13 above), the skull was intact and there were no fractures on it. The forensic experts considered that “the two lesions on the head”, which had been described as “cuts” in the prosecutor’s above-mentioned report, might have been caused by decomposition.
17.  When preparing their report of 12 November 2007 the forensic experts also took into account two other forensic reports. The first report, dated, 24 September 2007, pertained to a toxicological examination and confirmed that there were no toxic substances in Mustafa Döleksoy’s body.
18.  The second report taken into account by the forensic experts at the Adana Branch of the Forensic Medicine Institute was obtained from the Biology Specialisation Department of the Istanbul Branch of the Forensic Medicine Institute on 28 September 2007 and concerned the hair samples. According to that report, the hair samples found in Mustafa Döleksoy’s hand were “not responding to a DNA examination”. It was also stated in that report that, according to a DNA analysis, the stains found on the paper in which the hair found in Mustafa Döleksoy’s hand had been wrapped, and the hair samples taken from Mustafa Döleksoy’s head by the prosecutor (see paragraph 13 above) were a match.
19.  In the light of the post mortem examination conducted by them on 25 August 2007, as well as having regard to the two expert reports summarised in the preceding paragraphs, the experts at the Adana Branch of the Forensic Medicine Institute concluded in their report of 12 November 2007 that Mustafa Döleksoy had not been poisoned and that there was no medical evidence to show any involvement of an external factor in his death. On account of the fact that the hair found in Mustafa Döleksoy’s hand had not responded to DNA analysis, they could not establish whether or not it was his own hair. The experts concluded that they were unable to establish the exact cause of death on account of the advanced state of decomposition of the body.
20.  On 19 December 2007 the lawyer representing the first applicant and her husband informed the Erdemli prosecutor in a petition that in their opinion their son had died in suspicious circumstances. They asked the prosecutor to examine their son’s law firm and his mobile phone with a view to clarifying the circumstances surrounding his death. They also asked for a copy of the investigation file to be given to them.
21.  On 25 December 2007 the Erdemli prosecutor contacted the Biology Specialisation Department of the Istanbul Branch of the Forensic Medicine Institute and requested that further examinations be conducted on the hair samples found in Mustafa Döleksoy’s left hand with a view to establishing whether they belonged to Mustafa Döleksoy and whether they were even human hair. The prosecutor also asked the Institute to explain why the hair samples had not responded to DNA analysis and requested that both hair samples be returned to his office after the new examination.
22.  On 21 January 2008 the first applicant, Sultan Dölek, and her husband petitioned the Erdemli prosecutor and requested that a number of witnesses, including persons living in the same summer house complex where their son was found dead, be heard. Mr and Mrs Dölek also repeated their earlier request for their deceased son’s telephone records to be examined and informed the prosecutor that two persons had told them that their son had been receiving threatening telephone calls shortly before his death.
23.  Mustafa Döleksoy’s parents also informed the prosecutor that their son and his wife had been involved in prolonged court proceedings in the course of which his wife had refused to divorce him. They alleged that Mustafa Döleksoy’s wife, accompanied by a number of persons, had attempted to go secretly to the farmhouse where Mustafa Döleksoy had been living some one and a half years previously, but had been deterred by his dogs. The dogs had subsequently been mysteriously poisoned and killed. They added that Mustafa Döleksoy’s wife had told them on a number of occasions that she would not divorce Mustafa Döleksoy and that she would “make him suffer”. They also added that their son’s death had occurred some two weeks after he had brought a new case for divorce. Finally, Mr and Mrs Dölek asked the prosecutor to examine why the hair found in their son’s hand had not responded to DNA analysis when the hair taken from his head by the crime scene officers had.
24.  On 11 February 2008 Mr and Mrs Dölek presented another petition to the same prosecutor. They reiterated the suspicions they had voiced earlier about the alleged role of Mustafa Döleksoy’s wife in their son’s death and added that they had suspicions that the wife’s sister had also been involved in Mustafa Döleksoy’s death. They gave the prosecutor a copy of a post mortem report pertaining to the examination of the body of İ.B., who had been the husband of Mustafa Döleksoy’s wife’s sister, and who had been found dead in his house in 2001 in circumstances similar to those of their son. They told the prosecutor that İ.B.’s post mortem report had been given to them by their son Mustafa Döleksoy, who had told them that his wife and her sister might have been responsible for İ.B.’s death and that if anything were to happen to him, they should give that document to the investigating authorities.
25.  A specialist department within the Istanbul Branch of the Forensic Medicine Institute conducted a number of further examinations and adopted its report on 20 October 2008 in response to the prosecutor’s request of 25 December 2007 (see paragraph 21 above). It was established in the report that the hair found in Mustafa Döleksoy’s hand was human hair and that a certain amount of force must have been used to pull them from the scalp. The report confirmed the conclusion of the earlier forensic examinations that the “hair samples were not responding to DNA analysis”. According to the report, macroscopic and microscopic examination of the hair found in Mustafa Döleksoy’s hand had revealed strong similarities to the samples of his own hair.
26.  On 4 December 2008 the Erdemli Public Prosecutor decided to close his investigation into the death. Taking into account the medical reports summarised above, the prosecutor considered that there was no evidence to show that Mustafa Döleksoy’s death had been “caused by an external source, such as having been killed intentionally or unintentionally by another person or persons”.
27.  On 25 December 2008 Mrs Dölek filed an objection against the prosecutor’s decision, and argued that the investigation had been deficient. She alleged that the prosecutor had failed to take into account the information provided in her petitions. She further complained that the residents of a flat facing that of her son had not been heard and that the search for fingerprints and other evidence had not been carried out properly. Her son’s mobile telephone records had not been examined with a view to checking the calls made to and from his telephone at around the time of his death. She also questioned the forensic reports and submitted that the reason why the hair found in her son’s hand had not responded to DNA analysis while the hair samples taken from his own head had, had not been explained in the reports.
28.  On 26 March 2009 the Tarsus Assize Court considered that the reasons set out in the prosecutor’ decision were adequate and rejected the objection lodged by the first applicant. This decision was communicated to the applicants’ lawyer on 28 May 2009.
29.  The first applicant made an application to the Ministry of Justice on 6 April 2009 and asked the Minister to use his powers to intervene and issue an order to have the decision of the Tarsus Assize Court set aside. She repeated her earlier misgivings about the prosecutor’s investigation and argued that the decision of the Tarsus Assize Court rejecting her objection had not been adequately reasoned. She added that, although a decision had been made to return to the family the clothes her son had been wearing at the time of his death, this had not been done.
30.  The application to the Ministry of Justice was rejected on 13 May 2009 on the grounds that the Tarsus Assize Court’s decision was in accordance with applicable law and procedure.
31.  On 17 September 2009 Mrs Dölek wrote to the Erdemli prosecutor, and requested a copy of the investigation file together with the hair samples because she wanted to have a DNA examination of them carried out privately at a university. She pointed out that, according to academics from several universities with whom she had had contacts, a DNA examination could satisfactorily be carried out on the hair samples.
32.  In reply to Mrs Dölek’s request, the Erdemli Public Prosecutor took another decision of non-prosecution on 13 October 2009 in which he set out the steps taken previously in the investigation. The prosecutor decided to give a copy of the documents from the investigation file, but refused permission for the hair samples to be handed over. He considered that this part of the request was not in conformity with domestic legislation.
33.  Mrs Dölek lodged an objection on 22 October 2009 against the prosecutor’s decision and repeated her allegations about the investigation.
34.  On 7 December 2009 the Tarsus Assize Court upheld the prosecutor’s decision because it considered that this decision had been adequately reasoned. That decision was served on the applicants’ lawyer on 14 January 2010.
35.  A request made by the first applicant to the Ministry of Justice on 18 January 2010 to take steps to have the Tarsus Assize Court’s decision of 7 December 2009 set side was rejected by that Ministry on 3 March 2010. The Ministry’s decision was communicated to the applicants on 24 March 2010.
36.  When notice of the application was given to the respondent Government, the Court requested the Government to obtain and to submit an explanation from their forensic authorities on whether the Forensic Medicine Institute’s conclusion that the hair found in the deceased person’s hand could not be subjected to DNA analysis was based on an adequate examination.
37.  The Government complied with that request and submitted to the Court a report prepared by the Forensic Medicine Institute on 17 August 2012. In this report the scientific methods used by the forensic experts who drafted the above-mentioned reports were explained and it was stated that it had not been possible to obtain “autosomal, gonosomal or mitochondrial DNA results” from the hair found in Mustafa Döleksoy’s hand.